mrs.waters.courses

Digital Citizenship: Literacy

With so many web sites out there how do you know which ones are best to use and which ones are for real?

There are 8 things you can look at when evaluating a web site to help you determine if it is vaild:
1. Who wrote the information?
What if you were trying to find out how to cure your dog's fleas and you found a web site written by a vet -- think it might be vaild?
Consider then ending of the URL -- for example a .edu (education) and .org (organization) are usually non-profits which aren't out there to make money from you unlike a .com or .net
2. Are the aims of the web site clear?
What if the flea site was created by a flea collar making company -- chances are they are trying to promote their flea collars so you will buy them.
3. Does the web site achieve it's aims?
If the web site is about how to get rid of fleas make sure it really gives you clear information on how to get rid of them.
4. Is the web site relevant and meaningful to you?
If you were looking for how to rid of fleas but you found a site that was about where fleas live in the world you don't waste your time with the site.
5. Can the information be checked?
Is the author some one you know of or can look up more information about? Can you find more information about the organization who create the web site? For example, if your flea site was create by Pet Vets of America can you look up more information about this organization.
6. When was the web site created?
If there is no date on the web site and you are looking for timely information then you may question the web site. Sometimes dates do not matter so you have to decide if they do or not.
7. Is the web site biased?
Think back to our example of the web site created by a flea collar making company -- they have a motive to sell you flea collars so think twice about the information they give you.
8. Does the web site give you choices to find out more information from other resources?
A good information providing web site will point you in the direction to find out more information from other web sites or resources. For example, our flea site might point you towards Pet Vets of America or "How To Take Care of Your Dog."

Print out this checklist and use it to evaluate some web sites

Let's check out some examples:
K-5th:
http://kids.discovery.com/   -- Is this site okay? It has a .com!
http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience/ -- How about this site? It has a .org
http://www.orkin.com/learningcenter/kids_and_teachers_games.aspx   -- How about this site? It has a .com!

6th-8th
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln --  What are the pros/cons of Wikipedia?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/al16.html --  How about this site?
http://www.everythinglincoln.com/asseenonebay.html  -- What about this site? It has a .com!

DO:
K-1st: Chat about the web sites listed above -- which are vaild? Chat about some of their favorite sites and discuss their validity
2nd-5th: 1. Do the http://www.quick.org.uk/menu.htm tutorial. 2. Complete the quiz. 3. Turn in your results. Rubric_2-5.
6th-8th: 1. Pick a topic and find two web sites -- where one is "vaiid" and the other is not. 2. Use the checklist to help you evaluate the two web sites you chose. 3. Create a PPT showing your two web sites (and their URLs) and describing why or why they are not vaild using the 8 Checklist Items! *Note: You can work with a buddy. Rubric_6-8.